Lighting Upgrades

Upgrading your lighting system is always a good idea, especially if you drive off-road or live in an area that frequently experiences damp and foggy weather situations. Lighting system installs are fairly simple in nature and can usually be achieved by the majority of do-it-yourselfers.

Automotive lights consist of three basic segments: a bulb, which generates the light; a shiny reflector, which amplifies and redirects the light; and a fluted lens, which focuses the light into a specific pattern or shape. Most aftermarket lights are designed with a specific application in mind, since no single light can deliver the correct beam for every condition. Driving lights throw a wide, long pattern -- and the most effective mounting location is either on the top of the front bumper or on a bumper-mounted lightbar. Pencil beam lights throw an extremely long and narrow beam -- the best mounting spot is either high on the bumper or on a bed-mounted lightbar that positions the lights above the cab's roof. Foglights use a very wide and short beam pattern -- the optimum location for foglights is as low as possible, such as under the bumper, since a foglight's beam is designed to penetrate under fog.

Now that we've looked briefly at the fundamentals of light design and function, let's focus on a typical installation of a high-performance auxiliary lighting system. For this upgrade, we used PIAA's Dual Sport 900 lights and bulbs. This excellent lighting system combines an XTRA Super White Driving Lamp and an XTRA Ion Crystal Fog Lamp in a single package. Additionally, the Dual Sport kit includes a high-grade wiring harness that requires no modification for proper installation and a switch to control the lights' operation.

For our installation, we traveled to Temecula, California, where Al Smith of Al's Performance added the PIAA lights to a '99 Suburban in short order, thanks to the completeness of the Dual Sport kit. However, Al did fabricate a small bracket to position the Dual Sports within the cutouts on the factory under-bumper valance.

The completed install is slick and the Dual Sport's output is impressive, considering the kit's small overall size. These lights are ideal for early model or late-model vehicles with limited installation space, or for applications where an enthusiast does not want to overwhelm the vehicle's front end with huge lights.